September 27, 2011

Review "The Old Prophecy of Winterland" in Metalliville Webzine (English)

More European metal promise
is meted out to us lucky listening headbangers, just like some of us
hold shares.

We are promised pure old
school black metal by this Spanish combo and sure they don’t lie.
Straight in with ‘Black spells’ and onwardly with ‘Order
Of The Winter moon’, ‘Cold souls’, ‘Dark Lady’,
‘Winds From The north’ and ‘Frozen Dawn’ disappointment
is rare as we are reminded of what proper extreme metal was really like,
back in the day before it became fashionable play incessantly fast and
gargle your way through an album.

Not that ‘T.O.P.O.W’
is abundant in slow moments, the near-progressive technicality just
sounds as authentic as the pioneering entries in the roster, with influences
in the solos and rhythms spread across an increasingly vast spectrum
of metal - one certain number almost sounds like a death metal attempt
at UFO’s ‘Doctor Doctor’. On the covers part of the
agenda, the boys bring proceedings to a satisfactory end with a run
of Satyr icon’s ‘Fuel for Hatred’ which tires nearly
more too hard to prove us that their inspirations are genuine but its
great fun to have on board the track listing.

Good touch of classic noise
with next to zero tedium as endured in many other areas of the genre
recently.